IB Points
BAND1- (Given the jumps between the levels, a whole grade seperates these)
45- A* A* A* A*
44- A* A* A* A
43- A* A* A A
42- A* A A A ( A* A A A is considered higher than A A A A A)
BAND 2-
41 and 40- A A A A A
38 and 39- A A A A
36 and 37- A A A B
34 and 35- A A A
BAND 3-
32 and 33 A A B
30 and 31 A B B
BAND 4-
28 and 29 B B B
26 and 27 B C C
24 and 25 C C C

The university also uses a "Subject Skew" to take into account subject choices. For example a person who is predicted 40 points but is taking theatre arts HL would get a -1 point and a person doing Maths studies would get a -1 point. Doing Maths Chemistry or Physics HL gains an extra point.

(Original post by rivda)
Honestly, I think thats rubbish.Getting 34 points is NOT equal to 3 A's. I mean, 34 is considered a rather low score for IB, and irregardless of the world average, it will not get one into good universities. People can complain about universities being biased against IB, but honestly, scoring above 38 points isn't that hard.

Neither is getting A*s. In my school, with an average of 40-ish around our top students, the A-level equivalent "top" students are expecting 3-4 A*s with FAR less effort than the effort required to get a 40.

(Original post by Hypocrism)
Neither is getting A*s. In my school, with an average of 40-ish around our top students, the A-level equivalent "top" students are expecting 3-4 A*s with FAR less effort than the effort required to get a 40.

Well, IB is more of a consistent effort and you can't mug at the last minute like you can for A-levels. But as a 43-pointer, I do think that people whine about how tough IB is wayy too much. Its not that hard to score a 6 in most subjects and combined with the average 2 bonus points, you already have 38. All it takes is some effort and consistency.

(Original post by rivda)
Well, IB is more of a consistent effort and you can't mug at the last minute like you can for A-levels. But as a 43-pointer, I do think that people whine about how tough IB is wayy too much. Its not that hard to score a 6 in most subjects and combined with the average 2 bonus points, you already have 38. All it takes is some effort and consistency.

It IS hard to score a 6, you smug idiot. Just because you managed to doesn't make it easy. Take into account the people who are doing subjects that they hate, the people that are better in particular areas (e.g. humanities over sciences), and the people studying in schools that are new to the IB, resulting in no core points and coursework/labs being marked down. That's just to name a few.

Also, take into account the fact that 6 subjects at IB versus 3-4 subjects at A-level is a big difference. And that's not even considering the insane amounts of IAs and extra-curricular hours you're supposed to do on top of that.

And have you even seen the new curriculum/mark schemes? They've upped the grade boundaries for a lot of my subjects this year.

My point is that whilst YOU may think it is easy, it is not for the majority of people. Going around bragging about being a '43-pointer' just makes you look arrogant and self-centered.

EDIT: And I forgot to mention, with 34 points you can easily get into a top 20 university for multiple subjects, one of which being Law.

(Original post by k3ro)
It IS hard to score a 6, you smug idiot. Just because you managed to doesn't make it easy. Take into account the people who are doing subjects that they hate, the people that are better in particular areas (e.g. humanities over sciences), and the people studying in schools that are new to the IB, resulting in no core points and coursework/labs being marked down. That's just to name a few.

Also, take into account the fact that 6 subjects at IB versus 3-4 subjects at A-level is a big difference. And that's not even considering the insane amounts of IAs and extra-curricular hours you're supposed to do on top of that.

And have you even seen the new curriculum/mark schemes? They've upped the grade boundaries for a lot of my subjects this year.

My point is that whilst YOU may think it is easy, it is not for the majority of people. Going around bragging about being a '43-pointer' just makes you look arrogant and self-centered.

EDIT: And I forgot to mention, with 34 points you can easily get into a top 20 university for multiple subjects, one of which being Law.

" Take into account the people who are doing subjects that they hate"- You mean your school forced you to do certain subjects?

"the people studying in schools that are new to the IB, resulting in no core points and coursework/labs being marked down." - Good point, I concede. Sorry.

"Also, take into account the fact that 6 subjects at IB versus 3-4 subjects at A-level is a big difference. And that's not even considering the insane amounts of IAs and extra-curricular hours you're supposed to do on top of that." - Not that big a difference. The A-level people I know have stuff like Project work and required community involvement projects. Same as CAS, etc, etc.

"And I forgot to mention, with 34 points you can easily get into a top 20 university for multiple subjects, one of which being Law." - But the top 10? The top 5?

Look, I was in no way trying to brag. In the school I come from, my marks are in no way seen as high so the inflated feelings of self-importance and grandiose you think I have are rather non-existent. I do apologise, in hindsight it did sound like I was boasting.
But my point remains. I still dont think 34 points is equivalent to 3 A's; The universities would not be so biased, then, to ask for an AAB, from an A-level student, then 39 points from an IB student. Especially when the IB is universally acknowledged to be harder. My point was that IB students should quit whining about how biased people are against the IB programme, because its not as bad as some people, like you, make it out to be.

(Original post by rivda)
Honestly, I think thats rubbish.Getting 34 points is NOT equal to 3 A's. I mean, 34 is considered a rather low score for IB, and irregardless of the world average, it will not get one into good universities. People can complain about universities being biased against IB, but honestly, scoring above 38 points isn't that hard.

Actually it is. Only the best students tend to be eligible for IB, and few IB students score above 38 points.

Conversely you get a lot of students getting AAA for A-levels nowadays.

Your school doesn't force you to do certain subjects in most cases, but for most people, they will only have one option for language A1, and learning the other for subject groups (second language, maths, humanities, science) will be hard for some students, no matter what specific subject they pick.

(Original post by rivda)
&quot; Take into account the people who are doing subjects that they hate&quot;- You mean your school forced you to do certain subjects?

&quot;the people studying in schools that are new to the IB, resulting in no core points and coursework/labs being marked down.&quot; - Good point, I concede. Sorry.

&quot;Also, take into account the fact that 6 subjects at IB versus 3-4 subjects at A-level is a big difference. And that's not even considering the insane amounts of IAs and extra-curricular hours you're supposed to do on top of that.&quot; - Not that big a difference. The A-level people I know have stuff like Project work and required community involvement projects. Same as CAS, etc, etc.

&quot;And I forgot to mention, with 34 points you can easily get into a top 20 university for multiple subjects, one of which being Law.&quot; - But the top 10? The top 5?

Look, I was in no way trying to brag. In the school I come from, my marks are in no way seen as high so the inflated feelings of self-importance and grandiose you think I have are rather non-existent. I do apologise, in hindsight it did sound like I was boasting.
But my point remains. I still dont think 34 points is equivalent to 3 A's; The universities would not be so biased, then, to ask for an AAB, from an A-level student, then 39 points from an IB student. Especially when the IB is universally acknowledged to be harder. My point was that IB students should quit whining about how biased people are against the IB programme, because its not as bad as some people, like you, make it out to be.

totally agree with riv there. you're either retarded or plain lazy if you get below 38pts. and where riv comes from...people dont raise eyebrows at 43 points. they only raise eyebrows if you get 34 points. then again........

This is why I wish the IB released average regional grades - I.E. The average point score for the UK. We could then compare it with the average A-level score and have a fairer comparison between the two qualifications.

We would also have to take into account that an arguably slightly more talented cohort takes IB, since many of the top students, given a choice, might choose IB over A-levels. In any case, the regional results would be, frankly, interesting.

(Original post by litgeek123)
totally agree with riv there. you're either retarded or plain lazy if you get below 38pts. and where riv comes from...people dont raise eyebrows at 43 points. they only raise eyebrows if you get 34 points. then again........

Since you guys both say its so easy to get 38 for IB! Care to enclose what subjects you took?

Each subject varies in their difficult to every person and it varies on their difficulty overall as well which is why the thread started stated that his/her school gives additional points for HL chem physics and Maths.

And coming from a school which has just started IB, it doesn't have the subjects which I particularly like, such as philosophy or psychology, so to me yes I was kinda 'forced' to take other subjects to make up my 6 subjects.

(Original post by k3ro)
It IS hard to score a 6, you smug idiot. Just because you managed to doesn't make it easy. Take into account the people who are doing subjects that they hate, the people that are better in particular areas (e.g. humanities over sciences), and the people studying in schools that are new to the IB, resulting in no core points and coursework/labs being marked down. That's just to name a few.
.

(Original post by fieryatheart)
And coming from a school which has just started IB, it doesn't have the subjects which I particularly like, such as philosophy or psychology, so to me yes I was kinda 'forced' to take other subjects to make up my 6 subjects.

Guys, I totally agree with you here. I graduated from IB two years ago. Our year was only the third graduating class from IB Diploma. We've only had 2 choices for each languages, 2 humanities choices, 1 art choice and 2 science choices. That means majority of us were forced to take subjects that we might not want to take! Also, in our school's situation, it was hard especially MOST of our teachers had NO IB experiences whatsoever before this. We've changed teachers far too frequently as well, partly because it's an international school, so many teachers left after their contract ended.

For example, during our Seniors year (ie: second year of DP), most of us changed teachers for three of the subjects compare to Junior year. (Mind you, that's HALF of the subjects we took!!) We also had two different CAS coordinators and two different DP Coordinators in those 2 years. In fact, the year after I graduated, there's a new one, which means the school has had 3 different IB coordinators already in 5 years of IB! So, these are the issues that made students suffer. Moreover, I've had classmates who got predicted a D in EE and ended up getting a B in the actual result. These are just two examples that I've learnt of. There's another one who received an A although he was predicted a C. We were taught NOTHING on the materials which should have come out History Paper 1 because the teacher had no DP experiences at all, so we had to do the reading ourselves. Fortunate enough, many of them had already gotten their acceptance to American universities, which meant IB results had zero effect to them. In such circumstances, would anyone say scoring a 6 is easy? Some people should think twice before calling others "retarded" or "lazy". Thank you.

(Original post by krazykeys)
My university has its own conversion taking A* grades into account:
The university also uses a "Subject Skew" to take into account subject choices. For example a person who is predicted 40 points but is taking theatre arts HL would get a -1 point and a person doing Maths studies would get a -1 point. Doing Maths Chemistry or Physics HL gains an extra point.